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Marist's Luderer remembered as cheerful; GoFundMe set up for family

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The Marist College baseball team boarded its bus after sweeping George Washington. Ben Luderer then turned on the radio.

Mike Orefice doesn’t remember what song came on, but his teammate decided to boogey in celebration that night over a decade ago.

“(Luderer) was going up the aisle back and forth, dancing and doing all this crazy stuff,” Orefice said. “It was so fun.”

Luderer was notorious for such antics, in good times and bad.

“Whenever the team needed to lighten up, he was there with a joke or a way to make people laugh and take some stress off,” Marist baseball coach Chris Tracz said.

On March 30, Luderer passed away from complications related to coronavirus. Greg Butler, Luderer’s high school coach at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey, said Luderer had experienced some symptoms and went to the hospital. However, he was sent home because they were presented as rather mild and subsequently succumbed to the illness.

He’ll be remembered as a gritty player and a shining person, one taken too soon. Luderer, a native of Ramsey, New Jersey, was 30 years old.

Orefice and Tracz both learned of his passing last week, and the news rocked them.

“It made it real for me. (Coronavirus) is something that needs to be taken seriously and people need to really stay home and not go out,” said Orefice, a Roy C. Ketcham High School graduate who grew up in Wappingers Falls. “It really hits home when it’s somebody that you know and love. That’s when it sinks in.”

The Marist College baseball team poses at Dutchess Stadium in 2012 after winning the Hudson Valley Classic. Ben Luderer, number 16, died of complications from coronavirus.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Tracz added that he felt sorry for Luderer's family and called the circumstances surrounding his death "terrible."

The former Marist baseball players and former players from the Marist women’s basketball team spearheaded a GoFundMe page for Luderer’s family, which includes his wife — former Marist women’s basketball player Brandy Gang. The couple met while attending Marist.

The fundraising effort began on Friday, April 3. As of Monday evening, it had already surpassed its goal of $30,000, with $33,310 raised.

“I think everyone has always described Marist as a small family, especially in athletics,” Tracz said. “I think they reached out to a couple of Ben’s teammates and said, ‘We want to do something.’ They’ve all just been communicating and I think for the immediacy of what was going on, the GoFundMe made a ton of sense.”

A fierce competitor

Luderer was the starting catcher for the 2008 Don Bosco Prep baseball team that finished 33-0. He batted sixth in the lineup and handled a pitching staff laden with powerful arms.

He was among seven players from his high school team to go on to play Division I baseball. And after strong freshman and sophomore campaigns at Marist, Luderer sat out the 2011 season with a shoulder injury.

But he proved to be irrepressible, striking back the following season to start 29 games behind the plate and bat .283 with 15 RBI.

“He had to kind of gut out his career in college,” Tracz said. “I think as a player he was tough and resilient. When it was time to get down to business, he was as intense as anybody. He really did a good job of reading the room and reading the team.”

After his career at Marist, Luderer went on to coach at Cliffside Park High School in New Jersey.

The cheerful teammate

Practices and bus rides to faraway games could often turn into long days, and when the Red Foxes needed a laugh, Luderer was their man.

“Even when times were pretty tough, he was the one person who could always turn to for a witty joke,” Orefice said. “He would just do something to make everybody laugh to lighten up the mood. That’s pretty much who he was.”

Tracz verified this, although he was unable to point to a specific joke or time in which Luderer made him laugh.

A lot of those moments added up.

“There’s probably not one memory, just the totality of his career,” the coach said. “I think as the days, weeks, months and hopefully years go on, we’ll be able to continue to come together to honor Ben.”